Friday, July 10, 2009

Kanamemo is a yuri-ish boarding house comedy that has flown in under the radar this season. I found the humor just okay, but the sentimentality, moe, and low-intensity yuri were right up my alley.

And the show has one of the most interesting cast lists around: emerging young moe star Toyosaki Aki (Yui in K-On) is surrounded by great voices, from Endou Aya to Hirohashi Ryou to Horie Yui, Kitamura Eri, and Kugimiya Rie. To give you an idea of the tenor of the thing, Aki is a waif who stumbles into the girls' boarding house. Ryou is a genki girl, Aya is Ryou's jealous lover, and Hocchan is a drunken college student who likes to give liquor to young girls.

To keep track of the characters and their seiyuus, I have made a page showing pics of both, and giving a few of the seiyuus' previous roles. Click here or on the image to go to the full page:

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Princess Lover didn't seem all that promising before the season started. A harem show based on a game. A new director who had only directed episodes of Shugo Chara and Macross Frontier. The writer who wrote the forgettable Telepathy Girl Ran.

But the cast looked intriguing -- Toyoguchi Megumi, Yuzuki Ryouka, Katou Emiri, Matsuoka Yuki -- and this being the first show by a new studio, GoHands, perhaps something might be up. Through one episode, things are looking good. Good action, good characters, decent writing.

Just to keep things straight, I have made a page showing the characters and their seiyuus, with pics and a bit of info about each voice, including some previous roles. Click here or on the image to go to the full page:

The show may just go downhill from here, but at least now I know who's going with it, lol.

The first episode of Sora no Manimani was just released Tuesday. I have been looking forward to it for the sake of hearing Hayami Saori in a new role, and Hayamin was good as the cautious ojou-sama Sayo.

But the star of the show was the star of the show: Itou Kanae did a brilliant job of both the comic and the serious aspects of Mihoshi, the irresistible force.

Here is a table showing pics of the characters and their seiyuus: Kanae-chan, Hayamin, Maeno Tomoaki, Koshimizu Ami, Tomatsu Haruka, Takagi Reiko, Majima Junji, et al., showing a few other roles done by each seiyuu. One voice of interest is that of Chiang Li-Mei, the half-Taiwanese seiyuu, stage actress, writer and director. Click here or on the image to go to the full table:

I enjoyed ep1 quite a bit. Director Takamatsu Shinji (Gintama, School Rumble) gave it good rhythm and momentum. It brought the manga to life.

Hashihime

The "Hashihime" or "Bridge Princesses," are characters in the novel The Tale of Genji (Genji Monogatari 源氏物語）. They are daughters of a disgraced prince, living alone with him in a small house at Uji, outside Kyoto. They are important characters in the last ten chapters of the novel.

The Genji can be considered the first real novel in the history of the world. It was written around 1000 AD by a Japanese court lady known as Lady Murasaki, or Murasaki Shikibu.

I think contemporary Japanese literature, including anime and manga, continues to preserve aspects of the Genji, among them sensitive psychological observation, a general passion for romance, and romantic interest in young girls. The main hero of the thousand-page novel, Prince Genji, had a number of present and former girlfriends living in his palace, and basically abducted his principal wife Murasaki when she was ten, marrying her when she was around 15.

notes

-- all Japanese names are written in Japanese order: surname first, given name second-- I claim no copyright on anything in this blog, unless otherwise stated